An attorney for terrorist Mohammed Reisha, who carried out a stabbing attack in Kfar Saba on Memorial Day 2020, appealed to the Supreme Court to lighten his sentence.
During the attack, Reisha stabbed Batya Lebel, then 62 years old, a total of 13 times. Lebel was evacuated in critical condition to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba.
Reisha was convicted in December 2021 on the basis of his confession of attempted murder with the intention of committing a terrorist act and of entering Israel illegally. He was later handed 21 years in prison.
Last week, during a hearing to discuss the appeal, Reisha's lawyer, Ala Talawi, said that despite the fact that it was proven that Reisha arrived at the scene in order to murder Jews and stabbed Lebel many times, "in the end of the day, the injury was light."
Supreme Court justice Yael Willner responded, "You cannot say that the injury was light after the material which we have seen, that is an outrageous statement."
Talawi added that the terrorist is a young man who did not plan the terror attack ahead of time, and his imprisonment has caused him harm.
Supreme Court justice Yitzhak Amit rejected these claims, saying, "We are talking about a terror attack which is an attempted murder and which was premeditated. We will not lighten [the sentence] on such a matter."
The other justices as well clarified to Talawi that they are not interested in hearing the response of the State to the appeal, since they intend to reject the appeal.
Following this, Talawi retracted the appeal, and Reisha's sentence was left at 21 years.
Honenu attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing Lebel, said, "The terrorist tried to kill Batya in cold blood, and stabbed her cruelly 13 times. The Supreme Court justices expressed their position in a firm fashion, [saying] that there is no reason to lighten the terrorist's sentence. It's time to change the ruling and the legislation, and clarify to those same terrorists that they will not be able to go back and carry out similar terror attacks, and they must be distanced from society for their entire lives."